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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29961198">A Nonbeliever's Faith</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/VSSAKJ/pseuds/VSSAKJ'>VSSAKJ</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SK8 the Infinity (Anime)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Episode: s01e09 We Were Special Back Then, M/M, One-Sided Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom/Shindo Ainosuke | Adam, POV Nanjo Kojiro | Joe, Pining</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:40:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>899</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29961198</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/VSSAKJ/pseuds/VSSAKJ</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaoru has an unshakeable ally standing beside him, but he has eyes for no one but the man they now call Adam.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom, Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom/Shindo Ainosuke | Adam</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>67</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Nonbeliever's Faith</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kojiro is too far away to hear the sound, but he swears the crunch of Shindo's board crashing into Kaoru reverberates through him like he's hit the dirt himself.</p><p>For the past few years, they've been united. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration—these days, they get on each other's nerves more than they ever had when they'd been younger, but Kojiro chalks that up to the pressures of adulthood. They live separate lives now, post-graduation. Kaoru has a business and a half to run, and he needs every drop of his plentiful charisma to do it. Kojiro has the restaurant, his dream place inherited from his old man; cooking is just one of his several passions and he welcomes the chance to pursue it.</p><p>Yeah, adulthood is what's come between them. That's easier to swallow than believing they should have cut their losses, quit skating, and parted ways when Shindo left.</p><p>Kojiro has never been stupid—even back then, he'd seen the way Kaoru looked at Shindo. He'd never needed to wonder if Kaoru would see that same expression in his own eyes: Kaoru was never looking his way.</p><p>Through the cameras, Kojiro watches Kaoru's eyes flutter open briefly, then shut again, and his heart decides that it remembers how to beat.</p><p> </p><p>They'd all bailed before, of course. It was a rite of passage: it was part of becoming a skater. Kaoru, being Kaoru, bailed <i>elegantly</i>. He avoided the usual scrapes and bruises on his face, on his elbows and knees, anywhere the evidence would show—Kaoru always managed to look beautiful. That had been the first thing that had caught Kojiro's attention. Kaoru was as beautiful as any girl he'd ever met—and then moreso, because he skated like he'd been born on wheels.</p><p>Even before he'd built Carla, Kaoru had skated with an eye for precision. Shindo led them to dangerous places, tempted them to ride harder, faster, higher, longer—and Kaoru always leapt at the opportunity to push past the furthest point, spiralling up further into risk. He knew exactly how he had to skate to succeed. He calculated everything.</p><p>He hadn't planned on falling for Shindo, Kojiro had always thought.</p><p>Watching it happen had been like seeing a bail in slow motion. They all trusted each other's skill, so it wasn't like Kojiro had needed Kaoru to look back and check that he was still there. But as the days passed by, Kaoru looked behind him or beside him less and less: Kaoru's eyes fixed on the back of the boy in front of them, as Shindo rose higher and higher in his estimation. The day that had sealed it, though, stuck in Kojiro's memory like a stone in the sole of his foot.</p><p>It wasn't a trick that Kaoru should have missed, but they'd been at it so long the sun was already starting to rise again. Kaoru landed in a sprawl, totally unlike him, and rolled onto his back, staring up at the winking stars and muttering, “I should have hit that.”</p><p>“You should have.” Kojiro agreed, skidding to a stop next to Kaoru and kneeling down on one knee to offer him a forearm. Kaoru didn't clasp it, didn't pull himself up; instead, he pushed himself into a seated pose and looked around for Shindo.</p><p>Shindo was standing a few meters ahead of them, spinning his board.</p><p>“Sorry.” Kaoru called in his direction as he started to climb to his feet again. When he picked up his board, he frowned; there was a long crack down the side of it, and one wheel was bent beyond repair. With a sigh, he had to confirm, “I'm out.”</p><p>Shindo slapped his board onto the pavement and pushed over. He came on too quick, and Kojiro only just managed to scramble out of the way as Shindo carved an arc between him and Kaoru. Without pausing, he scooped Kaoru onto his board and pushed away. Undeterred, Kojiro went after them, but even bearing a second passenger, Shindo's board went too quickly for him to keep up. He pushed and pushed and pushed, but Kaoru and Shindo kept gaining distance on him. He wasn't going to let that happen. He wasn't going to watch them disappear without him. They were <i>three</i>, damnit.</p><p>Kaoru and Shindo stopped at the end of a pier, too close to the end for Kojiro's comfort. Shindo held Kaoru's arms out to either side of him, leaning him forward over the ink-black water. Kojiro arrived to hear the tail end of whatever Shindo was saying, “... like a blossom falling from a cherry tree.”</p><p>Kojiro had never been religious, but he knew worship when he saw it, and it was all over Kaoru's face.</p><p> </p><p>Clenching a fist, Kojiro decides it's not worth calling Shindo by name any more; he's not the same guy they used to skate with, back when they'd been wild delinquent kids. With good grades, of course. The worst kind of delinquents.</p><p>Shindo is dead to him. Now, the thing in its place is called Adam, and all Adam seems to care about is finding an Eve. Kaoru is Kaoru: not Eve, not Cherry. Kaoru isn't anything to Adam, and Kojiro isn't going to let him think that means he’s nothing at all.</p><p>Kaoru is worth every thing to <i>him</i>. And he’s going to make Kaoru see it.</p>
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